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Let’s Get Back to the Kitchen Again

Spending time together is important to the overall emotional health of a family. One of the easiest and best ways to share time and family values is over a traditional meal. Instead of setting aside a specific day to spend time together as a family, time every day should be devoted to ensuring that communication and sharing of family values is taking place.

The importance of family time
Family meals are a ready-made stage for sharing what has happened during the day. Kids can be encouraged to talk about what their day has been like and parents can address any problems that the children may have been going through. Encouragement and love can also be shared between children and parents.

Meals are also the perfect time to teach your children the family values that are important to you. By reinforcing these teachings on a daily basis, it shows your children the importance of your values. Daily affirmation ingrains in them a sense of permanence.

Time to strengthen the family unity
Keeping the strength of family unity at a high level takes time and encouragement. Your kids need to know, every day, that you, as a parent, have ideals and values that they should adopt and be part of. It is vital that every family practice this every day.

However, in the hustle and bustle of modern life, it is easy to ignore or ‘let slide’ family time. Lack of daily encouragement will weaken the importance of what you are trying to teach your children and distance yourself from them.

Sharing meal times with your kids will show them that they are important to you. They will feel part of the family and their bonds with you will be the better for it.

Allowing a free flow of ideas
Family strength doesn’t come from walking in lock-step with your parents. A child must be encouraged to grow and think for themselves. Having a comfortable relationship with your children allows them to explore their own minds and opinions.

Using meal times to share and strengthen those opinions will make your family and, by extension, your children stronger. Having an emotional support system can keep them from making poor decisions based on feelings of abandonment and loneliness.

Bask in the love of the family
You should never forget or make light of the fact that you are raising the next generation of adults. The values you pass along to your children will be the basis for their life. If you are too busy with your own life to attend to their emotional or mental needs while they are young, they will pass along the same lessons to their children.

By encouraging the strength of your family, your kids will understand that their desires sometimes have to be sublimated to the greater good of the family, community or larger group. Good citizenship begins at home and one of the easiest ways to teach it is to make your kids an important and integral part of your family.